Tribute written by Mark Blyth, published in the Review of International Poltical Economy

Giovanni Arrighi – 7 July 1937–18 June 2009

One of the most important figures in the field of International Political
Economy, Giovanni Arrighi, passed away 18 June 2009. His contributions
across multiple fields during a career of over 40 years touched the intellectual
lives of almost all of us in the IPE community. His trilogy on capitalist
development, The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of
Our Times; Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System (with Beverly
Silver) and Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century,
have already proven, in the context of the current crisis, to be trenchant
reminders of the power of historical sociology to illuminate both the past
and our present.

I had the privilege of sharing a university with Giovanni.When I was a
young assistant professor I was asked to review Chaos and Governance in the
ModernWorld System for a journal, and I did itwith all the self-assuredness
of a young assistant professor. I read his story of hegemonic transition
with skepticism. After all, my ‘rigorous’ grad school training had taught
me that you can’t generate a theory from three data points. And as for
his notion of a ‘Braudelian financial flowering’ heralding the end of the
hegemon, writing in 1999 at the height of the tech-stock bubble, how could
this be right? Despite publishing such an asinine review, Giovanni never
said anything to correct me. He just let events take their course and the
error of my ways become apparent. He could have said ‘I told you so’,
but didn’t. He didn’t need to. I was wrong and he was as right, about a
great many things. In this moment of crisis and change, the illumination
he provided, for all of us, will be surely missed.

On Behalf of the RIPE Board
Mark Blyth

Review of International Political Economy 16:3 August 2009: 544